Streets of Rage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the first game in the Streets of Rage series. For the series as a whole, see Streets of Rage (series).
| Streets of Rage | |
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| Developer(s) | Sega |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Release date(s) | 1991 (Japan) 1991 (North America) |
| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | CERO:A (All Ages) (Sonic Gems Collection) |
| Platform(s) | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Media | 4-megabit cartridge |
| Input | Mega Drive/Genesis controller |
Streets of Rage is a side-scrolling beat'em up video game released by Sega in 1991. It is the first part of the Streets of Rage series, a trilogy of games released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
The game was released when Nintendo's SNES was imminent, and Sega needed exclusive games to rival the SNES. They needed a game similar to Capcom's Final Fight, a successful and popular arcade game. As such, Streets of Rage is very similar to Final Fight. A key selling points was that it supported 2 players, a feature omitted from the SNES port of Final Fight.
The game and its successors would all sport a soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro based on various styles of European techno music.
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[edit] Storyline
The story resembles a typical 1980s crime film. The unnamed city where the games take place is under the control of a crime syndicate, run by the series' main villain Mr. X. With the local government and police force under his control, crime runs rampant. Having had their request for a special unit to combat the trouble turned down by their corrupt superiors, three young police officers (Axel Stone, Blaze Fielding and Adam Hunter) resign from the police force and fight the syndicate on their own.
[edit] Gameplay
Gameplay is simple and remains the same throughout all three games: 'B' is used to attack and pick up items, 'C' to jump, and 'A' is a special attack. In Streets of Rage the special attack is 'assistance' from a police car which will pull up at the level's beginning and fire naplam for Player 1 and rocket-powered gernades for Player 2. The explosions will take health from all enemies, but not the players. The player is given one Special Attack per life or per level, with power-ups shaped like police cars giving another. Though the game does not automatically scroll forwards like DJ Boy, players cannot go backwards similar to Super Mario Bros.. Similar to the game Golden Axe, enemies walk onto the screen from both sides as well as occasionally appearing from other locations (less so than in the game's sequels). With the exception of round 7, there is a boss battle at the end of every round with a disproportionately large enemy; unlike its sequels, none of the enemies are named within the game (only in the Japanese version's manual) and only the bosses have health bars (that appear below the player's during the boss battle).
[edit] Levels
- Round 1: City Street
- Round 2: Inner City
- Round 3: Beachfront
- Round 4: Bridge
- Round 5: Aboard Ship
- Round 6: Factory
- Round 7: Freight Elevator
- Round 8: Syndicate Headquarters
All rounds, apart from Round 3, take place at night. The only level without a boss is Round 7; however, all of the previous 6 bosses appear in Round 8, as well as the final boss for that level, Mr. X.
[edit] Enemies
- Underlings
- Galsia (Misspelling of Garcia)
- Y.Signal
- Nora
- Jack
- Haku-Oh
- Bosses
- Antonio
- Souther
- Abadede
- Bongo
- Onihime and Yasha
- Mr. X
[edit] Endings
The game has two endings. Players can either destroy Mr. X or take his place as boss of the crime syndicate. To achieve the latter, a second player is needed. Before the final battle, Mr. X asks both players whether they would like to join him as his right hand man. One player must agree and the other refuse. At this point the players will be forced to fight each other. Whoever wins, Mr. X will ask that player once again if he would like to become his assistant. If the winning player then refuses, Mr. X calls the survivor a traitor, and they fight for control of the syndicate. If the player wins, he or she is shown sitting in the boss' chair and laughing as the new crime overlord of the city.
If players agreed to become Mr. X's right hand man in single player mode, or if both players agreed in two player, Mr. X would press a lever with his foot and drop the players back to Round 6 to play to the last scene again.
If the players said no, Mr. X will fight the players. Upon beating him, a slide show is shown during the credits with the characters looking over Mr. X's body, walking outside to meet the cop in the police car, and then standing on a bridge watching the sun set.
[edit] Ports and versions
In Japan, the game and whole franchise are known as Bare Knuckle. Bare Knuckle and Streets of Rage are exactly the same, barring the title screen.
8-Bit Versions a version of Streets of Rage for both the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear were made. The Game Gear version suffers from the poorer colour palette and gameplay of the two. The Game Gear version omits Adam from the game and does not have the sprite animation for kneeing enemies. The Master System also features a boss on Round 6 which is not found in any other version of the game.
Arcade Versions Sega ported Streets of Rage to arcade cabinets using both their Mega Tech and Mega Play arcade boards, the difference being that in the Mega Tech version you pay for time, not credits.
Collections A signature title and franchise for Sega during the Mega Drive era the title was collected often: firstly Mega Games II (with Golden Axe and Revenge Of Shinobi) that was later bundled with the Sega Mega Drive, Sega Classics Arcade Collection (a Mega CD compilation with the two previously mentioned titles, plus Super Monaco GP and Columns). The voice effects for the characters in this version of the game were all redone with most fans agreeing they sound worse [citation needed], 6 Pak (composed of Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Columns, Revenge of Shinobi, Golden Axe and Super Hang-On); and Mega 6 (composed of Streets of Rage, World Cup Italia '90, Columns, Super Monaco GP, Revenge of Shinobi and Sonic the Hedgehog).
[edit] Trivia
- Blaze Fielding is very similar in design to the main character in another side-scrolling beat-em-up by Sega, 1985's Flashgal.
- The policecar used in special attacks is from E-SWAT: Cyber Police, a Sega Arcade game that was also ported to the Mega Drive. The driver of the policecar used in the special attacks is never named, though he is meeted and greeted warmly by Axel in the game's good ending. In Sonic The Comic's adaptation he was named 'Murphy'.
- Round 5's bosses, the twins Onihime & Yasha, are simply a palette swap of Blaze Fielding's sprite. They reappear as bosses in Streets of Rage 3 (called Mona & Lisa in the western versions), and have their own sprites.
- The PAL box art does not feature Adam, but does feature the Empire State Building. The colouring for Axel and Blaze is incorrect, but oddly, it is the same colour schemes that the sprites for Streets of Rage 3 would be changed to by Sega of America.
- Many of Team Shinobi, the team behind Revenge Of Shinobi were part of the Streets of Rage development team, and many in-game sounds and the main font are identical to that game.
[edit] External links
- Streets Of Rage Online, in-depth fansite for all three games.
- Streets of Rage review from Mean Machines Archive
- NTSC-uk's Streets of Rage Retrospective
